Confidence back in Bulls camp after Lyon win, says happy Jake White

Bulls director of rugby, Jake White, is happy with how his charges fronted up against Lyon in their impressive 59-19 win to make it through to the quarter-finals of the Champions Cup.

The Bulls’ mentor wanted to see a reaction from his side against Lyon following their 47-14 drubbing they suffered at the hands of Leinster in the United Rugby Championship and make it past the last 16 of the European Cup.

White left Loftus Versfeld a happy man on Saturday as his team delivered on both objectives.

Good teams react

The Bulls scored nine tries through Sebastian de Klerk (2), Embrose Papier (2), Marcell Coetzee, Ruan Vermaak, Willie le Roux, David Kriel, and Chris Smith in a game they were overly dominant in against their French opponents.

“I wanted a rebound,” said White when speaking to the media.

“Good teams are teams that after they get a performance like we did last week, you want to make sure you back it up with a proper performance. Some of those tries were outstanding,”

“It’s pleasing to get a reaction like that, and obviously pleased that we can interchange the way we have been playing. We used the altitude, we used a surface we practised on as a bonus and an advantage. I’m happy we pulled that one off.

“Last week was a good lesson because Leinster showed they can score tries, and we didn’t score as many as I would have liked. The confidence in the changing room now is completely different, it’s amazing how seven days can change everything,” he said.

Bulls X-factor

The Bulls’ attack showed it has been one of the best in European rugby this season, with their X-factor players like Le Roux, Canan Moodie and Kurt-Lee Arendse influencing the game.

“I was happy, and I also think sometimes we kicked the ball away, I couldn’t work out why when we had numbers on the outside or when we had the opportunity to keep the ball in hand we opted to kick it,” said White.

“When Canan decided to go through the whole and he held on to it, we scored and Kurt-Lee decided he wanted to use his footwork to beat guys one-on-one we scored.

“Even that try, that has got to be the try of the season, I know it’s biased but from our own try line, everyone touched the ball, tight forwards and loose forwards and then Emi (Papier) scored under the poles. That’s also a massive boost for me, what it says is we can use our backs and we have to be good enough to use our forwards,” he said.

Next for the Bulls in the Champions Cup is a last-eight tie with Northampton Saints this weekend at Franklin’s Gardens.